Peasant Bread, Royally Easy! #Baketogether

   Like everyone else, I spent the month of December glutting and rutting around the world of all things sweet and rich. Buttery, sugary, creamy and chocolaty, we went whole hog down the dessert rabbit hole. Hog is the operative word here. Any more cookies and treats and I'd have to start looking for truffles on a leash. After a month of sweets I bounced into January craving savories, turnips, and bao, and mushroom soup. Yes there were some donuts in there, but hey, they were baked!! But still they were donuts and I needed to get back to the good and the simple and the pure. Normally, that means getting back to the usual Indian vegetarian and vegan dishes that I regularly cook, but then I ran across something that changed my mind completely and that was Abby Dodge's Bake Togther Project.

   The Bake Together Project for the month of January was a Peasant Boule. A lovely homey and above all easy to make loaf of bread. This is not any old loaf of bread. This is special. This is the sort of loaf that calls out to one to "put some soup on, Honey. I'm home!" So what makes this bread so special?

• The Peasant Boule that Abby featured, is a bread that's made with "instant yeast" this is quick acting stuff that I'd never worked with before. This is yeast on steroids and it bulks up to a nice round puffy dough in no time, that is if you think 45 minutes is no time (I do!)

• The Peasant Boule is baked in an 8 inch cake pan (no special equipment here)  almost everyone has one of those.

• The Peasant Boule  is so versatile, anything  (flavors, herbs, fruit, nuts) can be added to it, that there is virtually nothing one can do to it to mess it up. 

 After reading all the great stuff about this bread I had to try it.

   As it turned out, I had the perfect opportunity. I'd recently come into possession of an electric pasta  machine, I had cured some guanciale (Roman bacon) that I was dying to try in an A'matriciana sauce and I was planning on busting out my new Ricotta making skills. The handwriting was on the wall. I was roots bound, I was going back to my ancestral origins, I was going to cook an Italian dinner. The Peasant Boule was going on the menu. In making Abby's bread, I followed the Bake Together Rules, and I made my own adjustment to the recipe. I decided to make an Olive Oil Rosemary loaf. You might want to try this bread and #Baketogether too.


Here's What You Need:

3 1/3 cups  all purpose flour
1 packet  instant yeast (Rapid Rise)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups warm water (between 115 and 125 degrees)
3 Tbs of Olive Oil
1 Tbs of chopped fresh rosemary

The preparation of this bread calls for a stand mixer. I don't have one, but I do have a food processor with a dough blade and it worked just fine.


Here's What To Do:

In the bowl of a food processor mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder,rosemary and yeast.
Turn the food processor on and pour in the warm water. The water needs to be at least 115 degrees and no more then 125 for this yeast to work. I used a cooking thermometer and it worked just fine.
The dough will start to come together in the bowl and will quickly turn bread ready. Run the food processor for about 5 minutes or maybe a bit less. I started to get a little worried since it was really flying around and my processor was bouncing on the counter. I was afraid I'd burn the motor out, but no way. It worked!
Scoop the dough out and roll it into a ball, put the dough into a lightly greased bowl (I greased it with olive oil) smooth side up. Cover the top of the bowl tightly with saran wrap and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, or until it doubles in size.
When it's doubled, dump it out on to a clean surface, (you don't have to flour it.)

Press it down to deflate it.

Shape it into a 7 inch round and place the whole thing in a lightly oiled 8 inch cake pan. Yes, that's right, nothing special, just a plain old cake pan. I rubbed the top of the dough with a bit of olive oil, and let it rise.

I didn't have an 8 inch cake pan. I had a 9 inch so my dough didn't get quite as tall as it might have.

Let the dough rest in the cake pan until it's doubled again, about 25 minutes or more. It all depends on the  temperature in the room the dough is sitting in. About 15 minutes before you're ready to bake the bread, preheat the over to 375 degrees.

Put the bread on the middle rack in the oven and let it bake for about 40 minutes. When the bread turns brown on top and the top sounds hollow when tapped, it's done!
Place the pan of bread on a cooling rack. Take the bread out of the pan and set it on the rack to cool. I set mine down next to my newly made fresh pasta.

 Serve and stand back because this stuff goes fast!

   The peasant boule toasts like a dream and it's the perfect sandwich bread. It was the perfect accompaniment for an Italian meal, but after looking at all the various ways of interpreting this bread I can't wait to try some of the other ways that have been suggested. That is, if I'm allowed. I've already received orders from headquarters for more of this great rosemary bread. It seems it's pretty popular for chicken sandwiches with roasted red peppers around our house. I on the other hand, am itching to try it with figs, or olives or orange zest for a great brunch treat. Okay, I have to make a confession here. Visions of French Toast have already danced through my head, but I'm not saying anything about it right now.

   Coming up next, I am no longer a pasta machine virgin as I present electric vermicelli bugaloo. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Turnips Go To The Circus. A Nutty Stand-In For Potatoes

   Friends of ours just had a baby last week the lovely and charming Little Miss Ella.

   Since Grandma has been working overtime helping out and leaving Grandpa on his own to forage for food, I decided to help out too and do a little cooking. I put together a little celebratory Indian vegetarian dinner. I love to cook using local produce and luckily living here in Sonoma I have access to good quality organic produce at very reasonable prices. So when I was roaming the market looking for stuff to cook, I came across a display of local turnips. Now, I love turnips. I call them potatoes without the guilt. Not that potatoes have anything to be guilty about. It's just that eating them gives me a sneaky furtive shiver. I feel like I should be alone with my spuds in a dark room somewhere where no one can see me enjoying them. Spuds are my dirty boyfriend and I'm being a bad, bad, potato girl.

   Turnips on the other hand are Spuds cleaned up worthy cousin. The guy with the great grades and the Med school future. He'll always respect you and your pants size. He's the one your parents want you to see. He's full of vitamins, minerals, he's GOOD FOR YOU! Which usually is enough to send anyone faced with turnips running for the hills. I'm not dissing potatoes here. They're good for you too. Filled with vitamins and minerals, I always ate them baked, skin and all. I ate a lot of things that way. They were good for me dammit!  Of course the kids in elementary school used to call me Applecore Gori too but that's a tale for another day.

   The problem with potatoes is generally not what the potato is but how they're cooked. Deep fry tofu, load it up with butter, cheese and bacon crumbles and it'll be bad for you too. I don't know what it is about the potato that makes people just want to tart them up like that, but it is what makes them soooooo desirable. People don't think of doing that kind of stuff with turnips. It'd be like putting a thong on your grandma. Now not all Grandmas look like.....well, Grandmas.

   But what does Helen Mirren have to do with the price of, or shape of turnips? Actually nothing.  Just go with me here. What I'm saying is that these aren't your Grandma's or your mama's turnips. In fact this isn't even a recipe designed for turnips, it's actually a recipe for potatoes but anything a potato can do a turnip can do too! The recipe is fast and easy, but the real magic is in the peanuts, and it's the peanuts that give it that "turnips go to the circus" fun.

Here's What You Need:

1 lb of turnips (you can also use potato, zucchini or yellow squash)
2 Tbs of vegetable oil ( I use coconut oil)
1 tsp of mustard seeds
1/2 tsp of cumin seed
1/2 tsp of turmeric
12 fresh curry leaves (if you can't find them omit them)
1 large finely chopped onion
1 tsp finely chopped shallot
2 fresh green serrano chilies slit down the middle
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 cup of water
2 Tbs dried grated unsweetened coconut
1 tsp of salt
2 Tbs roasted, ground, unsalted peanuts

Here's What To Do:

Peel and chop the turnips into small cubes.
In a skillet or kadhai heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil.
When the oil is hot, toss in the mustard and cumin seeds.

When the seeds start to sizzle and pop, add in curry leaves, garam masala, 1/2 tsp turmeric, onion...

chilies and shallot.

Stir everything around for about 4 minutes or so then add in the turnips and the garam masala.

Stir everything around for a couple of minutes then add in the water, salt and coconut.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then slap a lid on things and turn down the heat. Simmer it all together for about 15 minutes or so, until the turnips are tender.

 Now for the part that snaps this out of plain old turnip land and into the circus fun zone.
 Just before serving, scatter the crumbled peanuts over the turnips and stir them around.

   There you have it, crunchy, spicy not your average turnips. This is a definite keeper of a recipe.

Serve this with rice, chapattis and another vegetable dish or two for an Indian meal, or pair it with any standard American fare. It's a winner on taste, and nutrition. You're being good, but you'll feel like you're oh so bad!

   Coming up next a sweet and sour shrimp dish made with coconut water vinegar, that can be on the table in under and hour. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Baby Take A Bao... Dim Sum With An Indian Twist

   Now that the holidays are over, it's game time. Bowl season. The meeting of padded out rivals with black streaks under their eyes who's main motive is to seize victory by tearing each other apart with no mercy or as it's known around our house, the Golden Globes and The Academy Awards.

  Yes, I do live just north of San Francisco, and as a 5th generation San Franciscan I am rooting for the Niners to make it to (and win) the Superbowl. But let's get our priorities straight people about what really really really matters. Is Charleize Theron going to get a nomination this year? And what about Ryan Gosling? What about Ryan Gosling indeed!! Oh the humanity! This is the time of year when I bust out my plastic tiara, start whipping up the finger food and inviting the crew over to watch awards shows.

   Now when it's Awards time, I do not want to be stuck in the kitchen and risk missing some enormous gaffe like someone coming back from the Ladies with toilet paper on their shoe (Golden Globes) or someone with two left feet trying to dance (Academy Awards.) Therefore I want my food ready, everything set out so people can help themselves and a minimum of fuss. My answer to the food question for last weekends Golden Globes was bao.

   I ate my first bao at the age of 13. I had gone down to Chinatown as part of a luncheon group from school, a reward to those who made the National Honor Society. We went to the Hang Ah Tea Room and it was my first brush with dim sum and my first bao. I loved it. I loved it so much I even ate the little paper doily attached to the bottom. I thought it was part of the pastry. Hey, I was in the National Honor Society. Nobody said I actually had brains.

   Back in the day, dim sum wasn't exactly something many people I knew were doing but it quickly became a habit with me. Every Saturday morning I'd get on the L Car and head downtown. I'd walk through the old Stockton Street Tunnel

...and have dim sum at the Hang Ah all by my lonesome.

   I think it cost me all of 2 dollars for a feast, the centerpiece of which was bao. Over the years I've eaten bao, but I've always eaten it out at large dim sum places in LA's Monterey Park. Restaurants the length of football fields with rolling cars and waiters with walkie talkies (I'm not kidding) a far cry from the dinky old beloved  Hang Ah. I was missing the bao love. Then I decided, why go out for bao? Why not try to make some bao right in my very own kitchen? And while I'm at it I thought, why not try a different filling than the standard pork I was used to. Why not try bao with perhaps an Indian filling? I  could do that? Who was going to stop me?

   Actually using an Indian-style filling for the bao was not such an outrageous idea. In the south of India, a popular snack is Ela Ada which is a sort of steamed rice flour pancake stuffed with a sweet filling. Not exactly bao but in the ballpark. I knew that there were rice pancakes also stuffed with a savory filling such as shrimp. I was in business. This was something I had to try. Bao with a South Indian filling. But it wasn't the filling I was worried about. It was making the lovely, doughy jacket for the dumplings. As it turns out it was easier than I thought.

   On my last trip to the Thai Lao market over in Santa Rosa, I came upon a bag of ready-made bao dough, one of those 'just add water' deals. When I got it home, I started thinking. What was I doing? I generally don't use anything processed. Surely there has to be an easier way. Easier than just ripping open a bag? Yes. A few years back, the LA Times did a feature on making bao at home. I saved the  dough recipe. It was simple. Flour, a dash of oil and sugar, fast acting yeast and water. I set aside the pre-made mix and I made the dough in my food processor. It was ready to rise in about 5 minutes. No lie. That fast. Check out the dough recipe link. It will turn you into a bao making fool. A couple of minutes out of the food processor this was what I had.

Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with saran wrap and keep it in a warm place until it turns into a big, fluffy, ready-for-bao rolling pillow. While the dough was rising I prepared my filling, a spicy South Indian Shrimp curry.

Here's What You Need: 


1 pound of medium size  raw uncooked shrimp
1 seeded finely chopped green serrano chili
3 medium onions chopped
1 medium tomato chopped (or 1/2 can tomatoes chopped)
1 tsp of Kashmiri chili (or 1/2 tsp paprika mixed with 1/2 tsp of cayenne chili)
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp of turmeric
3 springs of curry leaves
salt to taste
4 Tbs of coconut or vegetable oil
1/2 cup grated dry unsweetened coconut
4 chopped shallots
1/2 tsp of fennel seed
2 serrano chilies chopped


Here's What To Do:
Rinse the shrimps and sprinkle them with
1/2 tsp of the kashmiri chili
1/4 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of salt
Set them aside for 15 minutes

Chop the onions , curry leaves (if you have them.)
Heat 2 Tbs of oil and saute them starting with the onions first, then the chili, then the curry leaves
When the onions have cooked and are soft add in the chopped tomato and the spices.
Put a lid on things and let them cook at a low temperature for about 5 minutes.
What you want is for the tomatoes to soften.
Add a bit of salt
Add a bit of oil if you need it.
Keep sauteeing until the whole mixture is cooked together
Set the mixture aside.

In another pan heat the shrimp.

Let them cook in their own juice. Add the rest of the oil and fry them for a minute or two.
Chop the shrimp roughly.

Add the shrimp to the pan with the tomato mixture and heat everything together and set it aside.

Heat a cast iron pan and when it's hot, dry roast the grated coconut, the shallots, the fennel seeds and the chopped green chilies.

Stir it all around and toast the mixture until the coconut browns lightly and the spices are fragrant.

Put this dry mixture into a food processor or grinder and grind it up. Do NOT add water.
Add the dried coconut mix to the shrimp and tomato mixture and stir everything together.
Your filling is ready.

How To Make The Bao:

Prepare a large steamer over a pan of water. I use a bamboo steamer. I have a huge, 2 tier one that I bought at a Thai market for about 10 bucks. They can also be purchased online. 
Cut out a bunch of little squares of parchment paper. The bao will sit on these in the steamer as they cook.
Put the risen dough down on a lightly floured surface. Pat it down until it's a thick round disc. Cut it in half. Keep the part you're not immediately working with covered so that it doesn't dry out.
Take the half you are working with and roll it into a log about 1 foot long. Cut it into about 8 even pieces.

I used an Indian dowel-shaped rolling pin and rolled out each of the little chunks of bao dough. The idea is to keep the dough thick in the center (the bottom of the bao) but thinner at the sides.

When the dough round is rolled out place it cupped in your lightly floured palm.
Place a few teaspoons of the cooled filling in the  center of the dough and then fold the sides in around it.

Make sure the little dough packet is sealed tightly. Place it on one of the squares of parchment paper and let it rise again for another 15 to 30 minutes. I let my bao rise in the covered steamer. That way when I'm ready to cook I don't have to move them again. I just take the steamer and place it on top of the pan of steaming water.

When the bao have risen, steam them gently for about 15 minutes or so until they are puffed and the filling is cooked.
Take them out of the steamer and cool them for 5 minutes of a wire rack.

Eat and enjoy. Repeat  the process for more bao.

I served them with a  Gujarati salad of cabbage , carrots and peanuts I also offered Crispy Bitter Melon Chips which btw are fabulous with beer. So, will I be making bao again? You betcha!

   They were delicious, and this time I didn't eat the little paper doily. Since I discovered it's so easy to make the dough, I'm going to be perfecting my bao-making skills and trying out a variety of fillings. I also just found out the  The Hang Ah Tea Room has opened a North Bay branch in Santa Rosa. I'm definitely going to try it out, but it's nice to know that dim sum can also be available in one's very own kitchen without the 50 mile round trip.

   Coming up next more tricks with those stars of the Winter Vegetable World, Turnips! Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Baked Donuts! Golden Globes With A Hole In The Middle.

   One of the great things about having this website is all of the great people I've met. They're from all over the world but they all speak one common language and that's food and the love of cooking. Some I've met in RL (real life) some I only know through the Virtual World or the Social Network, but every one of them has taught me something. I love it when I can pick up on a new way of doing something I've never done before.

   Take donuts for instance. After my high school work experience at The Donut Hole, donuts, no matter how cute and tempting they may look, held no charms for me. Too many traumatic experiences perhaps. What do I mean exactly? Well this device, which even though it looks like it's straight out of a David Cronenburg film, is merely a simple pastry and donut filler. I still have nightmares. Don't ask. And then there's all that boiling deep fat.

   Plus there are other embarrassing traumatic donut memories. When we lived in Malibu for a while I formed the dirty little habit of running across Pacific Coast Highway or The Road To Hell  as I used to call it, and nipping into Ralphs Market every morning for a couple of donuts and coffee. Don't  even ask about the place that used to be next to Malibu Lumber and sold the brie and turkey sandwiches on homemade farm bread. Nipping across the highway from the beach soon turned into galumphing across the highway, and so the donuts had to go. Let it be said that making donuts was the last thing I was thinking about. And then I met Heather aka Farmgirl Gourmet.

   I met Heather a couple of weeks ago when we were both featured in the New York Times "Fine Dining Column" What We're Reading. I immediately loved her site. Local, homegrown and sustainable, there's something for everyone, including as it turns out, donuts. The thing that won me over about Heather's donuts was that they were baked cake donuts. No deep fat fryer, no weirdly erotic jelly loading device. Another plus was that they were made of something called hard wheat, which turned out to be a whole grain, winter wheat and the recipe called for olive oil and non fat milk. No full fat milk, no butter. I was sold. I had to try those donuts.

CORRECTION:
Okay, I've got to stop here. Heather just informed me that it wasn't her in the article! I got  my Farm girls mixed up. The site featured with me in the article is girl farm kitchen ..I don't know her, but her site is great too. I blame it all on those donuts. Those baked donuts! Just on the basis of those donuts, Heather should be in the New York Times. I have to admit that when I see baked donuts, I want to know the person who's made them. It was wishful thinking. Anyway, I do know Heather now, I can't remember how but I do know it had to do with seeing those donuts, and she inspired me. And now back to our story in progress...

   I immediately set off to find a donut pan. I was faced with a couple of choices. One that baked regular sized donuts and one that baked mini donuts. I chose the mini donut plan, less guilt inducing I thought. Of course there's always the possibility (as Alan pointed out) that one will eat more of the minis because they're well... mini. But, there's risk in everything. I chose the mini pan.

   I decided to kick off these donuts with what we consider the first "game" in what is to us as screenwriters, our "bowl season" the Golden Globes.

We'd invited friends over to watch the awards and since I was serving easy finger food, I thought mini powdered sugar donuts with chai shots for dessert would be perfect.

Here's What You Need:

1 cup of hard wheat flour
1 cup of pasty flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 large eggs
The zest of 1 orange
2 tsp of baking powder
1 cup of non fat milk
4 Tbs of olive oil
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
 2 cups of powdered sugar

Now I couldn't leave Heather's recipe well enough alone, so to her recipe I added a couple of extras to underscore the Indian spice profile:

 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
 1/2 tsp of ground cardamom

Here's What To Do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a donut baking pan with non stick spray and set it aside
In a medium sized bowl add in the flours, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and orange zest.

 Mix it all  together with a whisk
 Add in the eggs,

Milk,

Olive oil.

Mix it together until it's all combined. Pour it into the greased donut pan. Bake the donuts for about 12 minutes or until they're not tacky on top.

Okay, here's a note. Don't overfill these little suckers. I know it's hard to get just a bit in a mini pan (it was for me) but if you overfill, you don't get donuts. You get an unholy cross between a donut hole and a mini bundt cake. You don't want to do this, trust me. So, be careful and fill the small cups only half way.

If you're careful you'll get this.

 Mini donuts! Wheee!
 Drop the mini donuts into a bag containing the 2 cups of powdered sugar. Shake it up baby.
 Put them on a wire rack to cool a bit.

and serve.

   Here's another note about these donuts. They're best served warm right off the rack. If you let them hang around too long (not that they will) the sugar will sort of melt into the donuts and you'll lose all that great powdery stuff and will have sort of mini glazed donuts. No bad, but not that pretty. Belive it. These donuts are great served with chai, coffee or tea. You don't necessarily have to have George Clooney as accompaniment...

But it doesn't hurt.

   Coming up next, I take bao to India and find that dim sum can be the perfect party food. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori 

Get Down To Your Roots, Turnip Masala

   Even though it's Summer, in some places right now (Australia I'm looking at you) here in Sonoma we are experiencing Winter. A dry Winter at that. Usually this time of year we are up to our armpits in rain and the Sierras are covered in snow. This year no such luck. While in 2011 people were skiing at Tahoe as late as July 4th, so far this winter there is nary a flake. Still, rainy or not, it's cold. Most mornings it's 30 degrees and sometimes less out on our deck. I know to a lot of people that's not really cold, but it's our cold and when it comes to Winter we take what we can get.

  I suppose I'm sort of a freak when it comes to Wiinter. It's my favorite time of year. I've never been crazy about Summer, those long hot endless days full of light. I like an early dark, I like a cloud cover. I don't do well in heat, and even though I have lots of friends who count down the days till Daylight Savings Time hits, I'm not one of them. Give me a fuzzy sweater, heavy boots and a bowl of root vegetables and I'm happy. This is my time of year.

  Growing up, my mom didn't serve a lot of root vegetables (except for carrots) and my only experience with them was limited to Peter Rabbit dodging buckshot like some kind of John Woo movie in Mr. McGregor's Garden, or a Thomas Hardy novel where people were always freezing and gathering Swedes (rutabagas). Root vegetables took on a sort of literary fascination. Eat a turnip, turn into Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

   Root vegetables were always associated with a cold climate. Imagine my surprise when I started cooking Indian food 22 years ago to discover that root vegetables are big in Indian cuisine. Any list of Indian vegetarian dishes is filled with potatoes and yams, parsnips and rutabagas, radishes and turnips. That's not counting shallots and onions and ginger and water chestnut, turmeric and fennel. I could go on, the list is long.

   So, now that the Holidays are behind us, maybe some other stuff is too. It's the New Year, time to clean  up the diet, and what better way than with some root vegetables. Fresh, inexpensive and in many places, local. Which is exactly what I was thinking when I picked up some beautiful young turnips at the market. After all, the expensive company food and treats during the last couple of months around here, it's nice to get back to something that rings in at under a dollar a pound.

   Turnips are spicy and peppery and almost radish like in taste, and with the right spices they become smooth and slightly sweet. Turnips with Spices, Masala Shalgam, is easy to fix and a great way to introduce turnips to a possible turnip-phobic diner. The ingredients are simple and if you don't have everything, don't worry. Most of it is at the local market.

 Here's What You Need:

1 lb of turnips peeled and diced
1 onion thinly sliced lengthways
1 fresh green serrano chili seeded and finely chopped
A 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
1 large fresh tomato peeled and chopped or 1/2 can of canned chopped tomatos

1 tsp of coriander
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp of jaggery or dark brown sugar
2 Tbs of fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of dried grated unsweetened coconut

Here's What To Do:

Heat 1 Tbs of vegetable oil (I used coconut oil) in a skillet or kadhai.
When the oil is hot, toss in the cubed turnips and brown them lightly. This mellows the flavor.
When they've been lightly browned set them aside.
In the same skillet add the sliced onions , ginger and chili.

Cook until the ginger and chili is softened and the onions are translucent and slightly browned.
Add in the chopped tomatoe.

Cook them down a bit until they've softened.
Add in the sugar, cumin, coriander, cloves, cinnamon and salt.

Stir everything around, then add in the turmeric.

Stir that in and cook for about 1 minute then add in the coconut.

Mix it in well then add the browned turnips back into the skillet.

Add about 1/3 cup of water, mix it in well and put a lid on the pan.
Simmer everything together for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Take the lid off and  check the turnips for tenderness. They shouldn't be too soft. If there is too much water left in the pan, cook it off. The sauce should be on the thick side.
Check for seasoning.
Sprinkle in the chopped fresh cilantro and serve it up.

   This is a delicious turnip dish. It makes a great introduction to this lowly, too often neglected root vegetable. It's makes a great dish for a vegetarian meal paired with rice, chapatti or roti and one or two other vegetables. It also works as an interesting side dish for any American style meal.

   There you have it, taking advantage of what's in season and getting a dose of Vitamin C, Niacin, Riboflavin, B6, Folate and Pantothenic Acid. This last one by the way is listed as assisting in the metabolizing of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

Of course for metabolizing there's always this:



But personally  I think turnips are much more fun and a lot less embarrassing!

   Coming up next I join the #QuinoaQueens. Yeah, it all comes out of weird stuff that goes on late at night on Twitter. Follow along @kathygori.